My Wines

My Cellar

It is impossible to take Beringer’s long history lightly. With their 215 acre plot of land purchased in 1875 and the winery founded in 1876, Jacob and Frederick Beringer’s winery is the oldest continually operating winery in Napa Valley. In 2001, it was named a historic district in the National Register for Historic Places. Current winemaker Laurie Hook and winemaster Ed ... Read more

It is impossible to take Beringer’s long history lightly. With their 215 acre plot of land purchased in 1875 and the winery founded in 1876, Jacob and Frederick Beringer’s winery is the oldest continually operating winery in Napa Valley. In 2001, it was named a historic district in the National Register for Historic Places. Current winemaker Laurie Hook and winemaster Ed Sbragia continue to draw from over a dozen vineyards to create world-class wines from varying soil compositions and climates.
The winery managed to survive, and even thrive, during Prohibition by selling sacramental wines with a federal license. Since the wine was being made for religious purposes, it was legal!
A unique aspect of Beringer is the tunnel system that was carved into the side of Spring Mountain around 1880. Chinese immigrant workers, the same workers that helped build the Trans-Continental Railroad, spent years hand-chiseling the 1,200 feet of tunnels. To this day, the tunnels act as a natural insulator, keeping the temperature between 58 and 60 degrees year-round, ideal for storing wine.
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In general, I agree with the tasting notes of the other winos; but I think there is a missing tag--and flavor--that none have mentioned: luxurious toasted, smokey oak. To me, that's a Beringer Private Reserve and Beringer Sbragia signature. Mmmmm.

Firm, intense and vibrant, featuring a complex, focused core of earthy currant, sage, black licorice and mineral. Full-bodied, yet sleek and trim on the finish, where the flavors are slow to unfold. Best from 2012 through 2022.

Deep ruby. Lively aromas of cassis, licorice and violet. Sweet and lush but juicy, with a strong chocolatey character and excellent underlying backbone. Very densely packed cabernet, with suaver tannins than the Steinhauer or Lampyridae bottlings. Finishes with lingering licorice and bitter chocolate notes. A very successful blend: 70% from Howell Mountain, 14% St. Helena, 8% Mt. Veeder and 8% Spring Mountain.

Laurie Hook blended this wine from a collection of seven vineyards, the majority coming from Howell Mountain’s Bancroft Ranch and Steinhauer sites (70 percent). The power and dark extract of that mountain fruit are plumped up by juicier notes of plums and fat blackberries, all of it wrapped in the char of oak. A potent vintage of Private Reserve, this is built to age ten years or more.

Production: 9,008 cases; Alcohol: 14.6%; Blend: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon; Harvest Dates: September 10 to October 24. The 2007 Private Reserve is composed of 34% Bancroft Ranch, 33% Steinhauer Ranch, 8% Chabot Vineyard, 8% Lampyridae, and the remainder from St. Helena Home Vineyard, Marston Ranch and Rancho del Oso fruit. A mild spring and summer with only a handful of heat spikes was followed by beautiful weather in September and October. One of the finest Private Reserves made over the last two decades, this phenomenal wine is obviously still an infant in terms of development, but it exhibits a dense purple color as well as an extraordinary nose of blackberries, white chocolate, licorice, tobacco leaf, smoky barbecue, charcoal and a burning ember-like note reminiscent of a Graves from Bordeaux. A dense, luscious, full-bodied, opulent style, with sweet tannin, this locked and loaded, intense, full throttle Private Reserve should be accessible in 5–6 years and last for 25–30.